WAR WITH GERMANY 



SPEECH .* 

/ 
OF 



HON. HENRY CABOT LODGE 

OF MASSACHUSETTS 
IN THE 

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 4, 1917 




WASHINGTON 
1017 
90442—17183 




0» of J» 

APR 15 









SPEECH 



OF 



HON. HENRY CABOT LODGE 



WAB WITH GERMANY. 

The Senate, as in Committee of tlie Whole, had under consideration 
the joint resolution (S. J. Res. 1) declaring that a state of war exists 
between the Imperial German Government and the (iovernment and the 
people of the United States and making' provision to prosecute the same. 

Mr. LODGE. Mr. President, no one is more conscious tli.in I 
that this is a moment for action and not for debate. But, as a 
nnMiil)er of the Committee on Foreign Relations and having 
taken part in framing this resolution, I wish briefly to state why 
I support it with the greatest earnestness of which I am capable. 

The most momentous po\\er entrusted to Congress by the Con- 
stitution is the authority to declare war, and never has Congress 
been called to a more solemn exercise of this great function than 
at this moment. We have submitted to wrongs and outrages 
from the central powers of Europe — wrongs which involve not 
only injury to property but the destruction of American lives — 
with a long patience. We have borne and forcborne to the very 
limit of endurance. Now the inevitable end is here and we are 
about to declare war against (Jermany. 

Speaking for myself and, I hope, for my associates generally 
on this side of the Chamber, I desire to say that in this crisis, 
and when the country is at war, party lines will disappear, 
and this disappearance of the party line will, I am confident, 
not be confined to the minority. Both Democrats and Repub- 
licans must forget party in the pre.sence of the common danger. 
This is not, and can not be, a party war. It is a war in which 
all Americans must be united, and no one must ask a loyal 
citizen, high or low. who seeks to serve his country in the field 
or in civil life to what party he belongs, any more th.-m it would 
be possible to ask his religion or his race. As Americans we 
shall all, I am sure, be prei)ared to give to the E.vecutive money. 
90442—17183 3 



y 



men. and all the necessary powers for waging war with energy 
and driving it forward to a successful conclusion. The President 
has made recommendations as to the action which he hopes 
Congress will take, with which I for one am in most thorough 
accord. 

We have only a very small Army and we must proceed at once 
as rapidly as possible to build up a large one fit to defend the 
country in any emergency. We must provide for the future 
and for the supply of men for the Army by a system of universal 
military training. I agree with the President that this new 
Army should be chosen upon the " principle of universal lia- 
bility to service." Our Navy is strong in certain branches and 
very weak in others. It must be our business to supply the 
deficiencies as rapidly as possible. Fortunately those deficiencies 
are of the kind which can be most quickly supplied. It is our 
duty to see to it that all the money and all the legislation 
necessary for both the Army and Navy are given at once. 

The President has said that war " will involve the utmost 
practicable cooperation in counsel and action with the Govern- 
ments now at war with Germany and, as incident to that, the 
extension to those Governments of the most liberal financial 
credits, in order that our resources may so far as possible be 
added to theirs." I am not only in full agreement with this 
policy advised by the President, but it .seems to me that nothing 
is more important than to follow it out. I am as thorough a 
believer as ever in the general policy laid down by Washington 
when he advised the people of the United States not to enter 
into permanent alliances; but the man who won the American 
Revolution through the alliance with France would have been 
the last to lay down a hard and fast rule that under no circum- 
stances and for no purposes were we ever to ally ourselves with 
other nations. He covers this point completely in the Farewell 
Address, where he says : 

Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a 
respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alli- 
ances for extraordinary emergencies. 

Farseeing and wise, he knew very well that dangers might 
come which would make a temporary alliance or agreement with 

90442—17183 



foreign nations imperative. Thiit time has arrived. It would 
be madness for us to attempt to make war alone ujjon Germany, 
and find ourselves, perhaps, at tlie end left isolated, at war 
with that power, when all the other nations had made peace, 
because we had not associated ourselves with them. The allies 
of the entente, as they are called, are fighting a conunon foe. 
and their foe is now ours. We can not .send a great army 
across the ocean, for we have no army to send. Yet I should be 
glad for one if we could seud now 10,000 men of our Regular 
troops, so that the flag of the United States might at least be 
unfurled in the fields of FriUicc. I believe thnt tlic mere sight 
of that flag in that region made so desolate by war would stimii- 
late the courage and help the success of those who have the 
same aim which we have and who seek the same victory. We 
can also help the allies, as the President reconunends, with large 
credits and with those supplies which we can furnish and which 
they lack. We can not do more in any direction to bring this 
war to a speedy end than to give those credits and furnish those 
supplies. 

The President has told us that German spies " were here 
even before the war began, and it is, unhappily, not a matter 
of conjecture, but a fact provetl in our courts of justice, that 
the intrigues which have more than once conie perilously near 
to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the 
country have been carried on at the instigation, with the sup- 
port, and even under the personal direction of otlicial agents of 
the Imperial Government accredited to the Government of the 
United States." I believe myself that the overwhelming mass 
of our citizens of German descent are just as loyal to the United 
States as any citizens could possibly be. But there is this class 
of agents of the Imperial German Government who are ready 
to engage in plots and crimes to the injury of the people of this 
country. " Disloyalty," if I may again borrow the words of 
the President, " must be put down with a firm hand." 

The purpose of the German submarine campaign is the de- 
struction of the world's mercantile tonnage. In the old days, 
in previous wars, the ships of warring nations were captured, 
90442—17183 



4 



frequeHtly in lar^e numbers, as was the case when our privateers 
ranged the Knglisli Channel in the War of 1812. But it must 
not be forgotten that, with few exceptions, these merchant ves- 
sels, when captured, were sent into port, condemned as prizes, 
and again put afloat. The total tonnage of the w'orld wa.s not 
materially reduced. But the (Jerraan submarine war. ruthlessly 
carried on. is directed toward the destruction of the tonnage of 
the whole world. Forced into war, as we now are, our first 
action should be to repair in some measure this loss to our own 
tonnage and to that of the world by seizing the ships of Ger- 
many now in our ports and putting that additional tonnage into 
the world's service. 

Mr. President, we have never been a military Nation ; we are 
not prepared for war in the modern sen.se; but we have vast 
resources and unbounded energies, and the day when war is 
declared we should, devote ourselves to calling out those re- 
sources and organizing those energies so that they can be use<l 
with the utmost effect in ha.stening the complete victory. The 
worst of all wars is a feeble war. War is too awful to be en- 
tered upon half-heartedly. If we fight at all, we must fight for 
all we are worth. It must be no weak, hesitating war. The 
most merciful war is that which is most vigorously waged and 
which comes most quickly to an end. 

Mr. President, no one feels the horrors of war more than I. 
It is with no light heart, but with profound sadness, although 
with hope and courage, that I see my country compelled to enter 
the great field of conflict. But there are, in my opinion, some 
things worse for a nation than war. National degeneracy is 
worse ; national cowardice is worse. The division of our people 
into race groups, striving to direct the course of the United 
States in the interest of some other country when we should 
have but one allegiance, one hope, and one tradition is far worse. 
All these dangers have been gathering about us and darkening 
the horizon during the last three years. Whatever suffering and 
misery war may bring it will at least sweep these foul things 
away. Instead of division into race groups, it will unify us into 
one Nation, and national degeneracy and national cowardice will 
90442—17183 



slink hack into the darkness from which they should never have 
emerged. 

I also believe that on our entrance into this war, under the 
conditions which it has assumed, our future peace, our independ- 
ence as a proud and high-spirited Nation, our very security are 
at stake. There is no other way, as I see it, except by war to 
save these things without which national existence is a mockery 
and a sham. But there is a still higher purpose here as I 
look upon it. The President has said with great justice that 
Germany is making war on all nations. We do not enter upon 
this war to secure victory for one nation as against another. 
We enter this war to unite with those who are fighting the 
common foe in order to preserve human freedom, democracy, 
and modern civilization. They are all in grievous peril ; they 
are all threatened. This war is a war, as I see' it, against 
barbarism, not the anarchical barbarism of what are known 
as the Dark Ages, but organized barbarism panoplied in all the 
devices for the destruction of human life which science, benefi- 
cent science, can bring forth. We are resisting an effort to 
tlirust mankind back to forms of government, to political creeds 
and methods of conquest which we had hoped had disappeared 
forever from the world. We are fighting against a nation 
which, in the fashion of centuries ago. drags the inhabitants of 
conquered lands into slavery ; which carries off women and girls 
for even worse purposes ; which in its mad desire to conquer 
mankind and trample them under foot has stopped at no wrong, 
has regarded no treaty. The work which we are called upon to 
do when we enter this war is to preserve the principles of 
human liberty, the principles of democracy, and the light of 
modern civilization ; all that we most love, all that we hold 
dearer than life itself. In such a battle we can not fail to win. 
I am glad that my country is to share in this preservation of 
human freedom. I wish to see my country gathered with the 
other nations who are fighting for the same end when the time 
for peace comes. We seek no conquests, we desire no territory 
and no new dominions. We wish simply to preserve our own 
peace and our own security, to uphold the great doctrine which 

90442—17183 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



020 914 082 2 ^ 



8 



miartls till' Amerlcnn hemisriliere. nful to sec t»ip (lIsaprM'urnnco 
of nil wnrs or rumors of wiipk from thf Kast. if any ilanuors 
there «'xlst. What we want most of all by this vl«-tory whiHi 
we shall help to win is to secure the worhl's iwitv. hroad-laiM-d 
on free«lom and democracy , a world not control le<l by a I'riis- 
sinn military autocracy, by Hohenzollerns ami HapsburRs, but 
Ity the will of the free p»'oplc of the earth. We shall achievi* 
this result, and when we achieve it we shall he idile to say that 
we have heli)e<l t<i confer grejit blessings upon muukind, and 
that we have not fought in vain. 
90442—17183 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS^ 

llllllllllllllllllll 

020 914 082 2 



